Flamingo and Grumpy
by snowbear96
Summary: The history of Toby and C.J.'s relationship, my way.


**Flamingo and Grumpy**

_A/N: In my eyes C.J. was born in November 1958 and Toby in December 1954; this totally contradicts the episode 'Access' in series 5 I expect but I don't care! I haven't seen it yet and even if I watch it while I'm writing this I won't change anything. This kind of goes with my story Finally._

My brother Andrew brought him to Ohio in their last year in New York. I was preparing to leave high school and to start my degree at University of Dayton. I was to major in American Studies and a minor in Political Science. Toby was a 'nice' young man as my mother would say. He was 22 when I first met in and he wasn't as gruff as he appears to be now. I know that Toby is a kind and funny man who pretends not to care but does more than many realize.

Toby visited us in Ohio the Easter after he turned 23 and I really got to know him. We became friends and kept in touch when he returned to New York studying for a Political Science degree. He came back to us in Ohio once or twice a year when Andrew, Jacob and I were all there. Tobus always got on well with Jacob, my eldest brother, but better with Andrew as they'd been room mates in Andrew's last year at NY. But the time Toby stayed with us the longest was when my mother died in '82. Toby came to help support those of us in the family he knew and he attended her funeral. He was always my rock to lean on and even was still a source of comfort when we were in different parts of the country.

For many years I saw him as a brotherly figure and it wasn't until I had my first degree and was in California studying for my masters that he became something different in my eyes. I know that I can't pinpoint when I fell in love with him because it happened so gradually but I realized it when I was 26 and Toby was 30. I was working for a PR firm in California helping a prospective Senator run for election. Toby came to visit me for a bit and compare the campaign I was part of to the one he was part of. He stayed for a few days and we agreed that I'd come out to New York for a while once the election was over.

While I visited him in New York Toby and I dated for nearly 5 months as I did some freelance PR work. During that time his mother died; I helped him deal with the grief as he had helped me. I'd always like his mother and she seemed accepting of me. Our romantic relationship ended amicably enough both of us knowing that long distance relationships don't work and I'd been offered another job in California. I knew I loved him but didn't tell him how much; he told me that he loved me and I believed him, I still do. I only spoke to him on the phone occasionally and saw him once when we were both in Ohio during the next year or two; he did offer words of support when my father remarried and even came to the wedding with me. A few months later I was heading into New York for a conference and agreed to meet Toby in a bar near my hotel.

When I arrived he was sitting with an attractive red head. I kissed Toby on the cheek in greeting and he introduced the woman as, "Andrea, my girlfriend." She corrected him, "Andie," as she shook my hand smiling. I resolved to get to know Andie, for Toby's sake, and order a drink. We had a good evening and I could see that Toby was happy, I was pleased for him but regretted what we'd abandoned. I agreed to meet up with Andie the next day and the three of us parted well. I went back to my hotel and returned the call of a man, Ben, whom I'd been on a date with two nights before and arranged a second date once I'd returned from the East Coast. Andie was a cheerful when I met her the next day and she told me that she and Toby had met the month before at a mutual friend's dinner party. I told her our history but didn't mention how much I love him and she gave me a lift to the airport.

Throughout the next year I kept in contact with both of them and was actually happy for them when Toby called to tell me they were getting married. I accepted Ben's suggestion of living together and he moved in with me. I thought that I loved him but realized, soon after Toby's wedding, that it wasn't to be. We started to have more arguments, especially because I wasn't truly happy with him so we broke up and he moved out.

The year I turned 34 I got a better job, although it was in Hollywood, and moved house. I knew that Toby and Andie were beginning to have problems and it didn't come as much of a surprise that part of the problem was that they were unable to have children. I knew that both of them wanted kids and they continued trying to conceive naturally even after they'd moved to Maryland in 1994 and Andie became a Congresswoman in '95. I only saw them four or five times during those four years but each time I did it seemed that they were becoming more distant with each other; not a large amount but just enough for a close friend to notice.

I didn't see Toby or Andie again until '97 when Toby came to get me from California; the day I was fired from my job by Isabel and fell in my pool when I saw Toby because my glasses had broken. I joined the Bartlet for America campaign and realized that I was still in love with Toby. A few weeks after the Inauguration in '98 Toby and Andie separated and divorce proceedings were completed by late summer.

They remained friends, of sorts, and Toby and I became much closer again. In 2002 Andie gave birth to twins and it turned out that she'd continued having IVF treatment after the divorce as was agreed by both parties. It came as a shock to me and I even tried to help get them back together. I didn't work and the day the twins were born she told him that he was too sad for her. After Zoey was found Toby shared that piece of information with me and I told him that he'd never been too sad for me. After we had been elected but before the inauguration I dated Tad Whitney but that ended a month or two after we moved into the White House. I flirted with Danny during our first term and even considered getting back together with Ben in the year or so after the twins were born.

It wasn't until our last year in office, during Donna's pregnancy, that Toby and I stated dating again. After things with Andie had failed for the last time I gave him some room then told him how much I loved him. I was surprised by something Andrea told me, once we told her we were together, she said that there'd always been a part of Toby's heart that was closed off from her and it wasn't until that night she met me that she realized why, that bit of his heart belonged to me. I laughed when I realized how much time we wasted and how many people, including our selves, we hurt in-between.

_What do you think?_


End file.
